Hearing deficiencies can range from partial hearing impairment to complete hearing loss. Often, an individual's hearing ability varies across the range of audible sound frequencies, and many individuals have hearing impairments with respect to only certain frequencies. For example, an individual's hearing loss may be greater at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies.
Hearing aids have been developed to compensate for hearing losses in individuals. Conventionally, hearing aids detects sound with the use of a microphone, which converts the sound into an analog signal. Hearing aids often include an analog-to-digital converter to convert the analog signal into a digital representation, which can be processed by the digital signal processor as programmed by an audiologist. Typically, such programming adjusts the digital representation to compensate for the user's hearing impairments.
In the following description, the use of the same reference numerals in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.